From Middle America to the Ends of the Universe

Happy Wednesday!

The USA’s run in the World Cup came to an end this week, falling 4-1 to Belgium in the round of 16. Disappointing but not surprising; Belgium is a top-10 team in the global rankings and the USA played nervously.

Traffic in Houston on game days was not as bad as I feared. I saw groups of fans walking around near my day job but that was it.

How was your World Cup experience? Who among the final 8 are you supporting the rest of the way? Let me know!

What I finished reading

Last time, I mentioned I was about six chapters into Project Hail Mary. The ending was good-a trifle contrived, but satisfying. Still recommended.

After I read it, I watched the movie starring Ryan Gosling. As you would expect, It wasn’t as good as the book, but it had moments of wonder, and some almost-2001-like scenes of space maneuvers. Along with some hokey Star Wars-ish jinks and janks. Some parts were glossed over so quickly that viewers who hadn’t read the book would be at sea.

“All Summer in a Day”

Although that’s the title of a Ray Bradbury short story from the 1950’s - the incessant clouds and rain of Venus stop and reveal the sun once every decade - that title hit me recently for very different reasons. Eldercare for my 80-something mother-in-law is getting more onerous, much more so for my wife than me. It’s reminding me that life is fleeting and we should enjoy every moment of it that we can.

It’s also reminded me of something I noticed years ago: science fiction writers predicting immortality would be invented around their 80th birthday.

Exhibit 1: Arthur C. Clarke (b. 1917) once said (paraphrase) “Anyone alive in the year 2000 will live forever.”

Exhibit 2: Larry Niven (b. 1938) had a character (Lucas Garner) in his nearish-future subseries within Known Space, living around 2125 or so, mention that he was born in 1939.

I think Bruce Sterling said something similar, but I don’t remember any details. Doesn’t change the trend of authors imagining a speculative advance that they might just live to benefit from.

Plausible reasons why this pops up among different SF writers? A desire for physical immortality, compounded by the agnostic/atheist tendencies of a lot of people in SF who fear self-extinction. An unwillingness to appear too greedy, or too wishful, by imagining immortality would go on the market the day after their prediction. A recognition that immortality would be an immense breakthrough and would require too much R&D to become available in less than about 50 years from the date of the prediction. A desire for physical immortality for themselves but not their parents.

Do any of those make sense? Do you have other thoughts? Drop me a line and we can chat further.

Of these authors, I’ll give Niven a lot of credit for exploring the opposite. He wrote a non-Known Space story, “Cautionary Tales,” which ends with the following line:

Ten thousand years wasn’t enough. No lifetime was enough, unless you lived it in such a way as to make it enough.

Words of wisdom for all of us.

Till next time,

Happy Reading!

Raymund